At first, when I read the story, I was confused and struggled with the plot. There are apparently more then one story running through and they are somehow interrelated to each other.
The main plot being the hotel-keeper's wife fell into cement and died, and Alexander is the suspect because he has the special hobby of not sleeping during night time. Also, Alexander's sister, being the only one in the family that works in the hotel, is suspected that she might have planned the whole murder with her brother in order to create a possible marriage. In this way, Alexander and his sister can gain control over the business.
Since Stein has spent most of her life writing Opera, she is very good at turing "writing a story" into "telling a story". She stresses on the communication between the author and the reader a lot. She also created the character Lizzie to represent the interaction between audience and the text.
Even though this story is open to all types of readers, the calling toward Lizzie shows that Stein puts most of her attention toward female readership. It is a strong calling for the interchange relationship between a female writer and a female reader.
I think this shows Stein that she has a strong sense of feminism
There're also critics about Blood on the Dinning Room Floor not being a detective novel. For instance, there's no detective presented through out the story, and the crime is left unsolved. And the possibility of not having a crime exists.
However, three factors make this story somehow tie to detective story. Which is the present of a corpse, the hotel keeper's wife; the possible motive, which is Alexander and his sister wanting to gain control; and at last, the suspicious character, who are Alexander and his sister.
After doing a bunch of research, I really appreciate the way Stein writes this story. It somehow ironically criticize the traditional authoritative detective novel, which presents confusion and gives solution. In Blood on the Dinning Room Floor, it's more like the author presents question and leaves it unsolved. This way, the content becomes more open.
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